On the road again! Welch moseyed on over to the School of Nursing to press some flesh and share some knowledge. This time it's Stella Seal, Informationist for the School of Nursing, tending to her flock. We had a great number of students pop by our table. All seemed to leave with smiles, a relaxed state of mind AND more Welch Library facts than you can shake a stick at. Maybe it was just the free candy. Folks did seem to appreciate who we were, where we were and how they could find journals and databases.

With Stella working the informationist mojo magic in the background, yours truly Alonzo doing the heavy lifting. Taking pictures.

Told they could win a Welch T-Shirt or a Mercedes.Who wouldn't be happy.

In case you haven't happened across our YouTube Channel yet, (from Website, scroll down and keep scrollin' till you reach bottom) we've added several new items. They're short "Video Moments" so you won't embark on an undertaking beyond your time limit or attention span. (We think of everything) Our new ones look at "Grey Literature" and "Full-Text Access".

If you've got a subject you want a few answers to---and chances are others may be asking the same questions---send me an e-mail and perhaps we can make a short moment that explores your topic.

Fall is upon us, and Welch hits the Campus Road for a series of Student Orientations. Here's Rob Wright, Basic Science & Public Health Informationist, being a rock star down in Turner Auditorium. He downplays it, but this time of year all the Informationists ARE rock stars---and why you ask? Because everyone needs that start-of-school INFORMATION. All questions great and small come their way. It's a joy to behold. So here's Rob chitting the chat, bringing calm to the chaos....

Feel free to insert your own witty anecdotes to these, I added my own just for good measure. And thanks to all the students who allowed me to snap a pic.

"No I didn't invent TIme, but if you go to the Welch Website I can show you how to request a few books on clocks..."

Rob reflects. Much like Bon Jovi, he too goes to "a quiet place".

If you're reading this today (8/29/12) tomorrow Stella Seal (another rock star) and yours truly Alonzo will be overat theSchool of Nursing from 3:00pm - 5:00pm doing much the same.Stop by and say Hi, we're giving out a few Welch bags----gettum while they're hot!

There's a captivating story that leads off this article, and it presents an almost euphoric sense of the potential for "ehealth" to expand and prosper. However, (and maybe it's me) as you read further you see that ultimately we're talking about healthcare systems buying up smaller physician's practices and the result is the creation of what seems like a cottage industry of leviathan healthcare systems. I'm no doctor, and I never played one on television but if your medical information is, say, oh, maybe----WRONG in one system---it's wrong all over the place.

But it's important to note that----and sentiments are expressed along these lines---that it's a brave, new world that doesn't quite have a healthcare roadmap at this point. Feel free to e-mail me and say a word or two.

Honest. She did. I offered Ellen the hard cash, but she said "No, I'd rather wear the T-Shirt". Sometimes it goes that way. People can't put a pricetag on a Welch T-Shirt. Ellen Dicks sent us some FEEDBACK, and here she is sporting new attire.

How many of us would do the same? Ellen works over in Public Health, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology---and now----deep down----I know the entire Department is jealous.

Sometimes life is just so unfair............

Send us some FEEDBACK (the link is on Welchweb), and you too could have the opportunity to take home one million dollars.

I was kidding about the million bucks. What? You knew? What gave it away?

While we may applaud the newfound medical protocols that come our way, I have two very distinct examples of what could be called the hi-brow and low-brow of recent discoveries. NPR had a story (thanks Carrie Price for sending my way) about a DIY DNA testing.

For a few hundred bucks and some spit you can receive a forecast about a variety of predictions for your individual health.We'll call this the high road. Now let's venture onto the Jerry Springer version of DNA medical outcomes. Yes, it's a "who's your Daddy truck". Folks, we are taking modern medicine to the people. Taking all the guesswork out of your nocturnal emissions......so to speak. Why wait for a talk show invite, when you can break out your plastic, offer up a swab and pray for the best?

The point of both articles is crystal clear. Aside from the convenience of both services, there's perhaps a moral question that's been raised by bigger brains than I. Just because we can, should we? For all the wonderful reasons why it could be good to know your future health patterns, how will we react to actually knowing so much about ourselves? If your child gets tested, (hopefully not for the "Who's your Daddy Truck), and you're armed with a certain set of predictables----would you ho-hum the results, or would you invest in a pre-emptive strike to make him/her more perfect? We give them plastic surgery if they sneeze the wrong way, what would we do if your child's health forecast was cloudy and not sunny? Perhaps the real question is "what would you be willing to do---and how far would you be willing to go?"

Perhaps you've already heard this story. Hunkered down in the article it mentions that since 2007, 90,000 youth have had plastic surgery (not all related to bullying). I posteda similiar article in FBthat looked at how much (that increasingly over-used) "self-esteem" has become both culprit and cure-all for all things related to hurt feelings. Heavens to Betsy----hurt feelings are now officially the end of the universe. So go get a face change. That's what self-esteem is tied to correct? Beauty. It seems not a day goes by when some commentator isn't rhapsodizing about someone's self-esteem, or someone's RENEWED self-esteem. Will beauty give people self-esteem? Evidently. It's already well-chronicled. So many lucky teens, so much self-esteem.

Almost by osmosis, beauty and self-esteem have become tied at the hip. If you're thinking that strength of character, perserverance, or sense of achievement have jumped ship---you'd be right. The message seems to be that this isn't their domain anymore. Because when your worth is defined chiefly by your looks----well----game over. Take your ball and go home.

Bullying is no joke. And unlike when other generations grew up, you can't go home and leave it on the playground. The Twitterverse won't let you. However, is it asking too much not to seek out the available extremes? The solution to what life throws our way doesn't always involve breast augmentation or rhinoplasty. Hurt feelings happen everyday. Judging by the multitude of ills, anxieties, allergies, phobias, depressions and suicides that plague teenagers these days---(google up "teens and self-esteem, behold a cottage industry) chances are that if I can buy you some self-esteem, could be you're not really getting your money's worth. This topis has generated a plethora of responses---others say this much better than I.

DisclaimerThe views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the blog author(s). The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by Welch Medical Library of The Johns Hopkins University.